Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to look F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, Recording from the home bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I want to start off the show today with some
Speaker 1: exciting news things that I have been working on for
Speaker 1: the last couple of months that have finally come to fruition.
Speaker 1: So first up, Patreon. So let me tell you a
Speaker 1: little bit about Patreon and the changes that I've made.
Speaker 1: So when Woke a f Daily left unceremoniously serious XM,
Speaker 1: I went to a couple of different outlets before landing
Speaker 1: with iHeart where you guys find me today. And in
Speaker 1: the interim, as I was kind of moving around and
Speaker 1: you know, we were living through a global health pandemic,
Speaker 1: I've launched a Patreon account where I could post episodes
Speaker 1: of wokf Daily and just really find a place to
Speaker 1: gather folks that were interested in staying in the loop
Speaker 1: with me, regardless of what platform I was on. And
Speaker 1: so I've had wonderful, amazing dedicated Patreon subscribers for God
Speaker 1: the last four years, and I am completely and totally grateful,
Speaker 1: and so I have wanted to do a revise of
Speaker 1: my Patreon for God the last year or so, and
Speaker 1: so finally have been able to do just that, and
Speaker 1: so I'm really excited to announce that Patreon has been
Speaker 1: refreshed and you can head over to patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash WOKF and take a look at some of the
Speaker 1: offerings that I have there. You can become a supporter
Speaker 1: with as little as five dollars a month and you
Speaker 1: get two video shows of WOKEF a week. That is
Speaker 1: woke Wednesday, which is a video show for Patreon subscribers only,
Speaker 1: and Bucket Friday, which is also a video show for
Speaker 1: WOKF listeners. If you jump up to the fifteen dollar
Speaker 1: a month, which is the Explorer level, you get all
Speaker 1: of the support of benefits, so you get those video shows.
Speaker 1: Plus I'm going to be doing a quarterly Zoom Ask
Speaker 1: Me Anything, where you will get to connect with other
Speaker 1: explorers virtually in a zoom setting and we'll do about
Speaker 1: thirty to forty minutes of Yes, ask Me Anything, and
Speaker 1: if you miss the live version of the zoom you
Speaker 1: will get a recording in your inbox. And I am
Speaker 1: going to be sending out my first Ask Me Everything,
Speaker 1: because I'll probably obviously do two in the second quarter
Speaker 1: to catch up from the first quarter, but you will
Speaker 1: receive that information in your inbox on Patreon, and then
Speaker 1: you jump up to the thirty five dollars a month level,
Speaker 1: which is the Seeker level of Patreon dot com, where
Speaker 1: you receive all of the Supporter and Explore benefits plus
Speaker 1: a monthly blog from yours truly that will hit your
Speaker 1: Patreon inbox the last Friday of the month. And then
Speaker 1: finally for the activators set at the fifty dollar a
Speaker 1: month level, you will receive all of the prior benefits
Speaker 1: at the Supporter, Explorer and Seeker level plus a monthly
Speaker 1: election deep dive via zoom that I will do and
Speaker 1: host and bring on some of our favorite guests from
Speaker 1: WOKF to be in a live session and setting for
Speaker 1: thirty minutes where you're able to ask questions via the
Speaker 1: chat as well as connect with other activators and so folks,
Speaker 1: head over to patreon dot com slash WOKF that is
Speaker 1: Patreon dot com slash WOKF and you can see there's
Speaker 1: a new welcome note from me with a video in
Speaker 1: the about section, just more info about how to find
Speaker 1: different ways to support and like I say, all of
Speaker 1: the time, supporting independent voices independent creators is more important
Speaker 1: now than ever, and so head over there and we
Speaker 1: can get into some good trouble, as the late John
Speaker 1: Lewis used to say. And then, lastly, super excited as
Speaker 1: well to announce the launch of my new newsletter, The
Speaker 1: Damn Digest, which will come out twice a month, and
Speaker 1: it we'll have content in there to get you inspired
Speaker 1: as fuck, peaceful as fuck, and engaged as fuck as
Speaker 1: we try and navigate these unprecedented times. You can head
Speaker 1: over to Danielle Moody dot com and join the mailing
Speaker 1: list immediately. It is a free newsletter, and I am
Speaker 1: looking for other ways to get out content that I
Speaker 1: am interested in creating. The times are chaotic and so
Speaker 1: I don't want to just be raging, which you will
Speaker 1: get a lot of rage. One of my featured articles
Speaker 1: up right now at Danielle Moody dot com is the
Speaker 1: right to protest right and the right to protest being
Speaker 1: under attack, and that is in the Engaged as Fucked section,
Speaker 1: as well as I give you five tips to help
Speaker 1: you romance your life a little more.
Speaker 2: Why do we wait for.
Speaker 1: Other people to romance us when we can romance ourselves
Speaker 1: as a way to live a more joy centered life.
Speaker 1: So head over to Danielmoody dot com and you can
Speaker 1: click on the blog and see the latest and sign
Speaker 1: up for the mailing list so that you never miss
Speaker 1: a newsletter. And then finally, friends, omg, the damn shop
Speaker 1: is open. I have officially launched merchandise. So many of
Speaker 1: you have been asking me throughout the years, and I've
Speaker 1: launched my first capsule collection, The Future is Woke, which
Speaker 1: is out now. T shirts, sweatshirts, totes, mugs, get it,
Speaker 1: get at it, gift it to people.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to create and find ways
Speaker 1: for us to wear our messages, wear our pride like
Speaker 1: and in a time when you have governors that are
Speaker 1: trying to ban books and ban curriculum and you know,
Speaker 1: weaponize the word woke, I want to fucking reclaim it
Speaker 1: and I think that we should rock it. So The
Speaker 1: Future is Woke is the first capsule collection that I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Grab a T shirt, grab a mug, grab a sweatshirt,
Speaker 1: and a toad and let people know just how fucking
Speaker 1: woke af you are. So all of that, friends, head
Speaker 1: over to Daniel Moody dot com. All right, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm super excited because I'm just trying to find different
Speaker 1: ways to create, connect and collaborate with all of you
Speaker 1: and do so in a way that makes me feel
Speaker 1: good and I don't have to go through gatekeepers to
Speaker 1: do it. And so that's why that's the other reason
Speaker 1: for the creation of this newsletter and the creation of
Speaker 1: the store is that, you know, we got to own
Speaker 1: our own shit, because apparently at any time, the government
Speaker 1: can come in and decide that they're going to go
Speaker 1: ahead and ban TikTok, right, and they're going to ban Instagram,
Speaker 1: and they're going to ban whatever it is that they want,
Speaker 1: and they will create the grounds to do so. So
Speaker 1: that is really the impetus of you know folks being like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, Danielle, I really want to find a way
Speaker 1: to support you, but I don't want to go through
Speaker 1: these you know, mass corporations that don't help their creators,
Speaker 1: that are really about their own algorithms and selling and
Speaker 1: selling your data. So yes, I'm trying to find ways
Speaker 1: to be able to go direct to consumer, direct to you,
Speaker 1: direct to audience, in a way where we can have
Speaker 1: a relationship that we own and that is not owned
Speaker 1: and go away in the middle of the night. And
Speaker 1: this was all prompted by the recent push with our
Speaker 1: Octanegerian elected fucking officials who have decided that they're going
Speaker 1: to ban TikTok. Now, the lie, folks that they are
Speaker 1: telling us that we've talked about on this show, the
Speaker 1: lie that they are spewing is that oh, well, TikTok
Speaker 1: needs to be sold to a non Chinese you know, ownership,
Speaker 1: and then it'll be all fine and good. Well, come
Speaker 1: to find out. I want to tell you you who
Speaker 1: has been behind this band, which will shock absolutely no one.
Speaker 1: But again it's like, hmm, ask yourself the reason why
Speaker 1: things are happening, in the way that they're happening, and
Speaker 1: when they are happening. So come to find out, great
Speaker 1: site called the Slow Factory which I follow on Instagram,
Speaker 1: and a slow factory is, you know, building systemic change
Speaker 1: for collective liberation. And they did a nice little roundup
Speaker 1: basically telling us that APAC, or the American Israel Public
Speaker 1: Affairs Committee, has spent millions of dollars silencing the ever
Speaker 1: growing movement for free Palestine by using, as they say,
Speaker 1: quote corrupt politicians as a way to fuel censorship and
Speaker 1: promote apathy. They go on to say that the writing
Speaker 1: is on the wall. The lengths the powers that be
Speaker 1: are going to to silence our voice online and in
Speaker 1: our workplaces, to violently attacking our bodies on university campuses
Speaker 1: and our streets have been extreme. But it's clear that
Speaker 1: those who support genocide are scared because they currently sit
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of history. And this carousel that
Speaker 1: they put out points to how the band had passed
Speaker 1: through the House of Representatives and the Senate that currently
Speaker 1: now TikTok is suing the United States for trying to
Speaker 1: institute this ban. They tell us that the bill to
Speaker 1: ban TikTok was authored by Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher, who
Speaker 1: spoke to Congress about the dangers of lobbyists advocating on
Speaker 1: the behalf of foreign countries, referring to China. But come
Speaker 1: to find out, this motherfucker has taken upwards of sixty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars from guess who a pack while drafting the
Speaker 1: TikTok ban. Mike Gallagher has been paid handsomely by Apax
Speaker 1: Slow Factory. Reports in March of twenty twenty four, Gallagher
Speaker 1: received seventeen thousand from APAC following the forty four thousand
Speaker 1: he received from them in twenty twenty two. Y'all, they're
Speaker 1: all in on it, right, Everyone is in cahoots. And like,
Speaker 1: I am not a conspiracy theorist, but this is not conspiracy.
Speaker 1: You have to look at recently a recent interview that
Speaker 1: Mitt Romney did with Anthony Blincoln where he openly said,
Speaker 1: and Ryan Grimm posted this on x He openly said
Speaker 1: that the reason why they are looking to ban TikTok
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with fucking privacy and China and
Speaker 1: has everything to do with the footage that is coming
Speaker 1: in directly from Gaza that is not being filtered through
Speaker 1: mainstream media outlets and whitewashed.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We've already seen reports that have come out from the
Speaker 1: New York Times. People have investigated the New York Times
Speaker 1: for the use of certain words when they are talking
Speaker 1: about Israel and the use of other words when they
Speaker 1: are talking about Palestine, and the whitewashing and the fabrication
Speaker 1: that was happening in their headquarters, right, that made it
Speaker 1: to the front page following the horrific attack on October seventh.
Speaker 1: So this is why I started out the show with
Speaker 1: saying this is what I'm doing in these different content
Speaker 1: creator focused spaces. Because when it comes down to it, folks,
Speaker 1: TikTok wasn't seen as a threat when it was just
Speaker 1: about dances and bullshit, right where it was just about
Speaker 1: dances and gossip and you know whatever the latest challenge is.
Speaker 1: But when it started to be used as a tool
Speaker 1: to bring awareness to the heinous, violent crimes that are
Speaker 1: being committed against the people of Palestine in Gaza at
Speaker 1: the hands of Israel that is being backed by the
Speaker 1: United States, all of a sudden, TikTok became the enemy
Speaker 1: and they want to use the lie of privacy as
Speaker 1: the reason for it. Meanwhile, fucking Meta, right, Google, the
Speaker 1: rest of them have been selling our data to each other.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We just learned most recently that Meta sold our data
Speaker 1: to Netflix for like a couple hundred million dollars. So
Speaker 1: we know that it's fine when it's a quote unquote
Speaker 1: American company that is doing dirt, But all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: when it's a Chinese operated company that allows us to
Speaker 1: have on the ground reporting in real time that is
Speaker 1: raw and real, that becomes the problem because now you're
Speaker 1: not able to control the masses in the way that
Speaker 1: you want to. So this is why I say to folks,
Speaker 1: you have to look at the sources. You have to
Speaker 1: look what is being said and also what is not
Speaker 1: being said. When they are referring to children that are
Speaker 1: being killed as adults, right, when they are labeling certain
Speaker 1: people terrorists, but ignoring the terrorizing and the complete obliteration
Speaker 1: of the Geneva Convention, and as it pertains to the
Speaker 1: actions that Israel has been taking. They want these student
Speaker 1: protests and all of these things stamped out so that
Speaker 1: they can regain control. And who is the they. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about our government, I'm talking about our mainstream media.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the powerful one percent that is seeing
Speaker 1: a workforce that is becoming untethered to the idea of
Speaker 1: working as a machine and our production being our only value.
Speaker 1: This younger generation is questioning everything and everyone because they
Speaker 1: realize what the rest of us are coming to understand
Speaker 1: that we have been sold a fucking lie, a lie
Speaker 1: about the possibility of the American dream, a lie about
Speaker 1: American excellence, a lie about our diplomacy and the footprint
Speaker 1: that we have around the world. And so young folks
Speaker 1: are waking up and becoming very aware and conscious and
Speaker 1: woke to who America has always been. And so, folks,
Speaker 1: in order for us to really get to a place
Speaker 1: of systemic change, we got to excavate. We got to
Speaker 1: clear out the basement. We gotta take out the skeletons.
Speaker 1: We have to do the hard, dirty work right before
Speaker 1: we get to reimagine and redecorate. And that is where
Speaker 1: I think that we are right at this moment, and
Speaker 1: we are a part of it. We are a part
Speaker 1: of the solution. I know that there are days when
Speaker 1: I get on here and I turn on this mic,
Speaker 1: and I am beat down, and I have not even
Speaker 1: the mustard seed of hope. But I will tell you
Speaker 1: that I have more days than not when I recognize
Speaker 1: the systems that are at play to make us apathetic,
Speaker 1: to drain us up our hopefulness, to wash away our faith.
Speaker 1: And it's when we decide to ban together, when we
Speaker 1: decide that our voices are bigger than their descent, that
Speaker 1: real change happens. Coming up next, I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: welcome to f Daily a conversation that I think is
Speaker 1: really important, Folks, that we have often here, but not
Speaker 1: with the people that are most adversely affected, and so
Speaker 1: today or bringing onto the show Yolanda Peoples, who is
Speaker 1: a worker in the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, and I
Speaker 1: get into a conversation with Yolanda about their recent win
Speaker 1: at Volkswagen to join the United Auto Workers' Union and
Speaker 1: what it means to be in a union and why
Speaker 1: that matters, and so to really understand from first hand
Speaker 1: accounts what it was like to organize and what it
Speaker 1: was like to win. And we have been talking about
Speaker 1: labor and workers' rights as we saw many uprisings and
Speaker 1: boycotts and worker strikes happen from Hollywood to Detroit to
Speaker 1: other places and other industries, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: really important to bring her voice to the forefront. That
Speaker 1: conversation is coming up next, folks. I am very happy
Speaker 1: to welcome to wok F Daily UAW member Yolanda Peoples,
Speaker 1: who just had a recent victory as a worker at
Speaker 1: the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga. And we on this show, Yolanda,
Speaker 1: have spent a lot of time good time talking about
Speaker 1: the labor movement, talking about the importance of workers, workers protections, workers' rights.
Speaker 1: So tell us what happened down in Chattanooga, and why
Speaker 1: you all had been in the press for the last
Speaker 1: couple of months.
Speaker 2: We won our union.
Speaker 3: We are now officially part of the ua W United
Speaker 3: Auto Workers Union.
Speaker 2: Congrats, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 3: We are all so excited to finally reach this milestone
Speaker 3: and to win our union. This was our third time
Speaker 3: trying to bring the UAW into Volkswagen of Chattanooga. For
Speaker 3: a long time, employees had felt as though they were
Speaker 3: being treated unfairly. They being heard, They wanted their voices
Speaker 3: to be heard, and they just knew that we could
Speaker 3: make Volkswagen the best place to work in Chattanooga. And
Speaker 3: so we decided that now is the time to see
Speaker 3: if we can try it once more to get our union.
Speaker 1: So this was the third attempt. What happened in the
Speaker 1: first two. If you can like what happened in those
Speaker 1: first two attempts, why didn't why wasn't it able to succeed?
Speaker 3: The first attempt was in twenty fourteen and the second
Speaker 3: one was in twenty nineteen. When we first tried to
Speaker 3: bring the union into volks Wagons, a lot of people
Speaker 3: wasn't really familiar with the UAW, and a lot of
Speaker 3: people weren't even familiar with unions at all. So when
Speaker 3: we tried to organize, both wagons had brought out a
Speaker 3: lot of miscommunication untruths about the union. They brought up
Speaker 3: the scandals and things like that that were with the
Speaker 3: ras W. They also brought up how the union were
Speaker 3: closed factories, and it just wasn't good those times. We
Speaker 3: weren't able to speak freely about the union. We can
Speaker 3: always talk about the UAW on our breaks and off
Speaker 3: company time, so.
Speaker 2: We weren't able to get the word around.
Speaker 3: We weren't able to educate people as much about the
Speaker 3: benefits of being part of the UNAW or being part
Speaker 3: of a union, and so we weren't really able to
Speaker 3: just inform the other employees or get word around the
Speaker 3: plant how beneficial this will be. But this time around,
Speaker 3: there have been changes in the National Labor Relations Board.
Speaker 3: They've changed certain laws that give employees the freedom to
Speaker 3: speak about unions and forming a union just as they
Speaker 3: were talking about their families or talking about a game,
Speaker 3: and so that that was the big change. It allowed
Speaker 3: us to be able to have discussions on the line
Speaker 3: while we were working, because we're working beside people eight
Speaker 3: hours a day, eight to twelve hours a day and
Speaker 3: all we do is talk.
Speaker 2: All day long while we're working.
Speaker 3: Because of helped the time passed and so I was
Speaker 3: a voc a voluntary organized committee person and my job
Speaker 3: was to get information into to the plan, talk to
Speaker 3: my coworkers, discuss the issues, see what issues they were having,
Speaker 3: and see what if they knew about the u a W,
Speaker 3: if they knew about unions, and what changes they want
Speaker 3: to see broad about. And by me being able to
Speaker 3: talk freely, I was able to talk to people I
Speaker 3: had never even thought to talk to talk to before
Speaker 3: I've been working with I've seen them and pass them,
Speaker 3: but I never just stopped and saying anything to them.
Speaker 3: So talking about the UAW and discussing these issues, that
Speaker 3: was a good way to open up conversation. And during
Speaker 3: this process I've made a lot of new friends. I
Speaker 3: made a lot of I call them family because we've
Speaker 3: been working together for so long. And it just gave
Speaker 3: me the opportunity to discuss something that I feel so
Speaker 3: passionately about being part of the u a W. And
Speaker 3: that was the main factor. Because we just was able.
Speaker 3: We were talking. We did a lot of talking. When
Speaker 3: I say we.
Speaker 2: Talked We did a lot of talking a lot, because that's.
Speaker 3: That's the only we can't bring out our phones on
Speaker 3: the we can't do it. So it was just word
Speaker 3: of mouth communication. We were not faced with a lot
Speaker 3: of backlash or a lot of in the previous years.
Speaker 3: You know, people felt as though they were being targeted
Speaker 3: and they stood up.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask if there had been in the
Speaker 1: prior to tries retaliation that the company took out against folks, But.
Speaker 2: What was that not the case at all?
Speaker 3: The first two times it was, you know, people were
Speaker 3: saying they were getting retaliation.
Speaker 2: It's sound as though supervisors knew that you stood with
Speaker 2: the UAW.
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes you'll get right up certain things like
Speaker 3: that that just came out of nowhere, and you were wondering,
Speaker 3: anybody okay because I'm with the UAW. And in private
Speaker 3: conversations that supervisors would have with certain organizers, and may
Speaker 3: people really afraid to stand up and say that I
Speaker 3: don't want this at the plan? And then are the
Speaker 3: employees see this happening? You know? And they was like,
Speaker 3: and if our company is fighting this hard against this
Speaker 3: against the union, maybe I should just sit back. Maybe
Speaker 3: I should say no, just out of fear, you know,
Speaker 3: it was. It was really fear because in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 3: be cause I started working at Volkswagen in twenty eleven,
Speaker 3: and by twenty fourteen, Okay, I knew all about the UAW.
Speaker 3: My dad and my grandfather were both part of the UAW.
Speaker 3: But I saw the organizers coming into plant, I was excited.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, we finally finna get our union.
Speaker 3: From then, I've seen the way they were treated, and
Speaker 3: I was like, well, I'm for a reunion. I'm going
Speaker 3: to vote yes, but I'm not gonna raise my voice
Speaker 3: and stand up because I need my job and because
Speaker 3: the way they were treated, it made a lot of
Speaker 3: people fearful to really stand up behind the UAW at
Speaker 3: that time. And this time the laws I changed, and
Speaker 3: then I made it to where the workers can organize
Speaker 3: and their company cannot step in. They cannot do anything
Speaker 3: in volks banging paid attention to that.
Speaker 1: So can you talk to me about some of the
Speaker 1: things that the UAW was advocating for for the folks
Speaker 1: at Volkswagen, like yourself, Like what were some of the
Speaker 1: things that maybe were happening that you were trying to change?
Speaker 3: Being the VOLCA our first mission was to ask the
Speaker 3: people exactly what they wanted, ask the people that they
Speaker 3: have any concerns. And one of the main things that
Speaker 3: a lot of people have brought up. We recently had
Speaker 3: our insurance changed, and a lot of people are paying
Speaker 3: for medical prescriptions and going to the doctor they recently
Speaker 3: didn't have to pay for and a lot of people
Speaker 3: are upset about that. That was the number one issue
Speaker 3: that a lot of people kept bringing up, is insurance.
Speaker 3: And then following the Big Three contract and their strikes
Speaker 3: and everything and seeing their contracts, we was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: they're fighting for better wages, but they already make more
Speaker 3: than what we made.
Speaker 2: Now we realized that we are so underpaid.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of people didn't realize that the
Speaker 3: other auto manufacturer companies, people that do the same things
Speaker 3: that we do, we're getting paid so much more than
Speaker 3: what we're getting paid. So when that brought that to
Speaker 3: the forefront and we were able to see exactly how
Speaker 3: much they were getting paid, they made us realize that
Speaker 3: why aren't we getting off what they're getting, you know,
Speaker 3: And that was a big issue too. The wages was
Speaker 3: a bit different because we have a lot of people
Speaker 3: that are working work there in tails off and they're
Speaker 3: still struggling financially.
Speaker 2: And to be part of the.
Speaker 3: Number one of the number one all the manufacturers in
Speaker 3: the world, and to still be struggling while they're making
Speaker 3: billions of dollars, that did not sit right with a
Speaker 3: lot of my coworkers.
Speaker 2: For myself, also.
Speaker 3: A lot of people are getting up in Asian they're
Speaker 3: preparing for their retirement and they just don't feel secure
Speaker 3: with just having a fore on like Kay because it's
Speaker 3: based on the market and it's not dependsible. It's not
Speaker 3: as dependsible as other plans are, or even having a pension.
Speaker 3: And a lot of people was upset that we weren't
Speaker 3: getting profit sharing. You have other Volkswagon plans and other
Speaker 3: bolts bagging companies that are making money off our bags,
Speaker 3: and we are not being a part of that.
Speaker 2: We don't have a part of that because we aren't unionized.
Speaker 3: And those were the many issues that I came in
Speaker 3: contact with when I was our Simier cords.
Speaker 1: It's incredible because one information is so powerful, right. The
Speaker 1: more you know, right, the more you can advocate for yourself.
Speaker 1: And so part of Volkswagen's original plan of oh, you
Speaker 1: can only talk about this at your break. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know you know how long the break is,
Speaker 1: but I guarantee you that it's it's you know, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that it's short. That doesn't really give you a
Speaker 1: lot of time to be able to share information. And
Speaker 1: just by looking at you know, the Big Three, looking
Speaker 1: at the contracts that they had, then you have a comparable,
Speaker 1: right like you were able to say like, well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, this position, I'm in this position, and this
Speaker 1: is what they're making. I think that the profit sharing
Speaker 1: piece is also really important. So when you all just won,
Speaker 1: which is incredible because the persistence, right, the persistence over
Speaker 1: the last ten years to get this done. So what
Speaker 1: are some of the things now that will be accessible
Speaker 1: to the workers at Volkswagen now that you all are
Speaker 1: officially members of the UAW.
Speaker 3: Well, the Volkswagen family has what's called the Works Council,
Speaker 3: and VOLKSWAGENO Chattanooga could not partake in the Works Council
Speaker 3: because we were not unionized. They make a lot of
Speaker 3: the big decisions between the corporate and the regular workers,
Speaker 3: between upper management and the regular workers, and we had
Speaker 3: never been able to, oh, we say, sit at the
Speaker 3: table with them because we were not unionized. All the
Speaker 3: rest of the Volkswagen companies are unionized except us here
Speaker 3: in Chattanooga.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yes, So.
Speaker 3: We were never able to be part of that. Since
Speaker 3: we have our union, now we can partake in decision
Speaker 3: making and what type of decisions are being made at
Speaker 3: our plant here, and we can be part of the
Speaker 3: words council.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that piece I didn't realize. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that other areas were unionized with Volkswagen, so they were
Speaker 1: not unfamiliar with unions.
Speaker 3: We always had to say Volkswagen is all for unions.
Speaker 3: It wasn't Volkswagen is a company that did not want
Speaker 3: us to unionize. It was just people placed in certain
Speaker 3: positions that really did not want us unionized. And then
Speaker 3: it was a lot of political issues that that's why
Speaker 3: we weren't able to organized here with Chattanooga.
Speaker 1: So now that you're a U a W member and
Speaker 1: you all have the right to organize, this now means
Speaker 1: that you're sitting at the table literally with the rest
Speaker 1: of the council. Are you now a part of the
Speaker 1: collective bargaining right?
Speaker 2: The absolutely?
Speaker 1: What what are some of the things now that you're
Speaker 1: going to be at the table. What are some of
Speaker 1: the things that you're you're going to be looking for
Speaker 1: some of the changes right now.
Speaker 3: What we're going We're going to take a plant wise survey.
Speaker 3: We're going to survey every employee to see what their
Speaker 3: main concern is. And once we get all everything together,
Speaker 3: we're going to see what people are really looking for
Speaker 3: one has some majority and what and it's all going
Speaker 3: to be voted on by each person in the plant.
Speaker 3: And those issues whatever everybody feeling though, is the main concern.
Speaker 3: Those are the ones that we were going to address
Speaker 3: first when we get ready to go to the bar
Speaker 3: and the table. And we haven't put out the survey
Speaker 3: as of jets. We're still waiting going our union recognization
Speaker 3: to be finalized.
Speaker 1: And how many people are are at your plant?
Speaker 2: Almost five thousand people at the plant?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 2: Yes, wow.
Speaker 1: You You had mentioned at the beginning that both your
Speaker 1: your dad, right you said, was in a union and
Speaker 1: I think did you also say your brother was also.
Speaker 2: My dad and my grandfather your dady and your grandfather.
Speaker 1: I have had the pleasure of speaking with members of
Speaker 1: asked me of another union for custodial workers for UH
Speaker 1: nurses and the like. And a lot of people come
Speaker 1: from family union family. Yes, right that that and are
Speaker 1: very very proud of that. And so did you grow
Speaker 1: up like understanding the importance of the union in how
Speaker 1: did it change the benefits that your family were able
Speaker 1: to have.
Speaker 3: My dad and my grandfather both worked in Georgia. They
Speaker 3: worked at General Motors going out I said. This was
Speaker 3: in the sixties and seventies, and being an African American,
Speaker 3: they felt as though they whenever they went up against management,
Speaker 3: the supervisors, or their team lead, they always needed somebody
Speaker 3: to have their back. So my grandfather started working at
Speaker 3: Generalmots first, and when my dad came, he said, you
Speaker 3: better join that union because you go to need your
Speaker 3: union rep to have your back when you go against
Speaker 3: HR for anything that you need. So anytime, and when
Speaker 3: I worked there for a season temporary seasonal workers, when
Speaker 3: they had the employees' family members come in and work
Speaker 3: and get a feel of it, I would hear stories
Speaker 3: from all his coworkers and things, whether their union rep
Speaker 3: or their line Stewart saved their job.
Speaker 2: You know, it was just hearing all these stories.
Speaker 3: And John, I know anytime that my dad, like my
Speaker 3: mom if she needed any legal counseling or anything like that.
Speaker 2: All she he had to do was call his union
Speaker 2: rep and.
Speaker 3: They could get him anything that he wanted or anything
Speaker 3: that he needed.
Speaker 2: They were able to put him in the right direction.
Speaker 3: My dad has been retired since two thousand and four
Speaker 3: and my mom recently just passed, and he still needed
Speaker 3: help finding out how to handle everything.
Speaker 2: And he was like, let me just call the UAW
Speaker 2: and see if they can help.
Speaker 3: And but relieve they were right there to help him
Speaker 3: guide him to whatever he needed done, even if it
Speaker 3: wasn't benefits related any if from anything they needed to ask,
Speaker 3: they always were able to put him in the direct
Speaker 3: right direction. So it's not just why you work there,
Speaker 3: it's also this is a lifelong relationship that you have.
Speaker 3: It's a lifelong concept or somebody have in your back.
Speaker 3: I mean, any time he needed anything, all he had
Speaker 3: to say, let me call of the union and see
Speaker 3: what they can do for me, and they always pointing
Speaker 3: him in the right direction.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's credible.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and that's why I fight so off. People don't understand,
Speaker 3: but I've lived this. I know the good that could
Speaker 3: come from this. It's not just for us here. It's
Speaker 3: they do stuff for the community. You know, they try
Speaker 3: to Okay to a Tendessee is a right to hire,
Speaker 3: right to fight in state. But you need that security.
Speaker 3: You need some going to always have your bag. It's
Speaker 3: nothing like going to work, working eight to twelve hours
Speaker 3: a day and then you have the issue with the supervisor.
Speaker 3: Now you stressed out about that because you have to
Speaker 3: fight on your own. But if you just headed to
Speaker 3: your steward, let them take that stress off of you,
Speaker 3: and all you have to do is focus on work.
Speaker 3: Let them handle all that extra stuff. You don't need
Speaker 3: to worry about that. We're here to build quality cards
Speaker 3: and if you got all this other stuff on your mind,
Speaker 3: it's hard, it's really hard. So they just take the
Speaker 3: stress off of you. Basically, that's a lot. That's one
Speaker 3: of the Bay reads why a lot of people want
Speaker 3: it just to have somebody fight for them or be
Speaker 3: there with us so they don't have to feel alone.
Speaker 1: Yolanda, I just want to want to congratulate you again
Speaker 1: on the win on a ten year, ten year battle
Speaker 1: that you personally had been in order to get your
Speaker 1: Chattanooga facility unionized, and just you know, thank you. So
Speaker 1: much for explaining the importance of unions and that it
Speaker 1: is necessary for people to be able to do their
Speaker 1: jobs and do so with security. And that's what it
Speaker 1: really means, is that a union means security for workers. So, Yolanda,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making the time to speak today.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate you.
Speaker 3: These help us all lot if we're trying to help
Speaker 3: every other plans and is trying to organize as well.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Dear friends on wok
Speaker 1: a app as always, power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay a woke.
Speaker 1: A spot